Michael Zelniker

Biography

Michael Zelniker is a Canadian actor, screenwriter and director. Born in Montreal, he studied acting and theater at Dawson College before appearing in films such as Pick-up Summer (1980) and Ticket to Heaven (1981). He is best known for playing Red Rodney in Clint Eastwood's Bird (1988) and Doug Alward in The Terry Fox Story (1983), a role that won him a Genie Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984. His other credits include Naked Lunch (1991), Queens Logic (1991) and Mercenary (1996), along with guest roles on television series including Murder, She Wrote and The Dead Zone. He wrote, produced and starred in Stuart Bliss (1998), which won the Northampton Film Festival's Best of Fest Award, and later wrote, produced and directed Falling, which earned the Best of Festival Award at the 2012 Indie Fest USA International Film Festival. He also taught acting from 2004 to 2013 at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

Movie Career

Films: 8
Career span: 23 years1980 to 2003

Genres

Comedy38%, 3 films
Drama38%, 3 films
Horror25%, 2 films
Sci-Fi25%, 2 films
Thriller25%, 2 films

First and latest

Did you know?!

Behind the camera
Zelniker wrote, produced and starred as the title character in the 1998 film Stuart Bliss, which won the Northampton Film Festival's Best of Fest Award.
Behind the camera
Falling was written, produced and directed by Zelniker. The film earned the Best of Festival Award at the Indie Fest USA International Film Festival in 2012.
Behind the camera
Zelniker directed, wrote, produced and edited The Issue with Tissue, a documentary about the boreal forest and the largely untold story of the Indigenous Peoples who call it home.
Early training
Zelniker taught Acting for Film, Chekhov Technique and Performing Shakespeare at the New York Film Academy's Los Angeles campus starting in 2013.